Sanitary garment



Aug- 7, 19 5. DE WOSKIN SANITARY GARMENT Filed March 9, 1960 tt @55 a l l'lllll'lll United States Patent 3,643,176 SANETARY GAPMENT Irvin S. De Woskin, St. Louis, Mo., assignor to Eeitx Corporation, St. Louis, Mo., a corporation of Missouri Filed Mar. 9, i960, Ser. No. 113,768 1 Ciaim. (6i. l28288) This invention relates to sanitary garments, and more particularly to a sanitary garment of the panty type for being worn with a sanitary napkin.

The invention is concerned with an improvement on a sanitary garment of the type such as that shown in my United States Patent 2,678,648, patented May 18, 1954, and, more particularly, is concerned with an improvement in the construction of the crotch section of the garment. In the garment disclosed in said patent, the crotch section is a one-piece crotch section of flexible, impervious, Waterproof material, preferably a coated fabric such as commercially available rayon coated on one side (which is the inside of the crotch section) with a plastic. Some users find it uncomfortable to have this impervious plastic layer in contact with the body. Accordingly, the principal object of this invention is the provision of an improved construction for the crotch section which, while being effectively impervious and waterproof, does not have an impervious plastic layer in contact with the body, thereby being more comfortable to wear. Additionally, the construction is such that the crotch section may be readily cleaned and provides some ventilation. Other objects and features will be in part apparent and in part pointed out hereinafter.

The invention accordingly comprises the constructions hereinafter described, the scope of the invention being indicated in the following claim.

In the accompanying drawings, in which one of various possible embodiments of the invention is illustrated,

FIG. 1 is a front elevation of a sanitary garment having a crotch section of this invention;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged cross section taken substantially on line 22 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a rear elevation of FIG. 1;

PEG. 4 is a fragmentary section taken substantially on line 4-4 of FIG. 2 and on the scale of FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a plan view of the crotch section per se, prior to its assembly with the body portion of the garment, with par-ts broken away; and

FIG. 6 is an enlarged cross section taken on line 6--6 of FIG. 5.

Corresponding reference characters indicate corresponding parts throughout the several views of the drawings.

Referring to the drawings, a sanitary panty garment of my invention is shown to comprise a body portion 1 of thin fabric material. This material may be a woven or knit fabric made from any suitable material, and is preferably nylon tricot. The body portion consists of front and back sections 3 and 5 joined at stitched side scams '7. An elastic waistband 9 encircles the waist of the body portion, which is puckered, and is stitched to the waist by the seam indicated at if. The garment has a crotch section 13 seamed by stitching along its front and back margins throughout their extent to the front and back body sections as indicated at 15 and i7, respectively. The body portion and crotch section are cut to provide leg openings 15?, and elastic bands 2.1 encircle the leg openings, being stitched to the puckered margins of the body portion and the side margins of the crotch section which extend along the leg openings as indicated at 23. The front and back margins of the crotch section extend from one leg opening to the other.

On the inside of the front section of the body portion is a narrow substantially nonstretchable fabric tape Efidddlh Patented Aug". 7, i352 extending generally centrally from the waist to and terminating at the center of the front margin of the crotch section and caught at its upper end in the waistband seam 11 and at its lower end in the front crotch section seam '15. The tape 25 is stitched along its side margins to the front body section as indicated at 2'7. On the inside of the back section of the body portion is a similar tape 29 extending centrally from the waist to and terminating at the center of the back margin of the crotch section and caught at its upper end in the waist band seam l1 and at its lower end in the back crotch seam 17. The tape 29 is stitched along its side margins to the back body section as indicated at 31. Attached to each tape at its lower end is a sanitary napkin fastener 33 having an end opening 35 receiving stitching 37 attaching it to the tape just above the crotch section seam. The fasteners extend over the ends of the crotch section.

In accordance with this invention, crotch section 13 is of special construction, comprising an outside layer 41 of thin fabric material, which may be the same as the material used for the body portion 1, an intermediate layer 43 of thin, flexible, impervious, waterproof heatsealable sheet plastic material such as a polyvinyl chloride film, and an inside layer 45 of open-mesh net material, which may be made from heat-scalable plastic yarn such as nylon yarn. As appears in FIGS. 1, 2, 4- and 5, the meshes (openings) of the net material are large in relation to the thickness of the yarn from which the net material is made. FIG. 5 shows the three pieces 41, E3 and 45 which constitute the crotch section as they are laid out and preliminarily assembled prior to assembly with the body portion 1. This preliminary assembly is accomplished by spot-heat-sealing the three layers together at intervals all around the edges of the assembled layers as indicated at 47. This preliminary tacking of the layers serves to hold them together while they are stitched to the front and back body sections 3 and 5 and while the elastic leg bands 21 are stitched to the body sections and the side margins of the crotch section. The stitching then functions to hold the crotch section layers together all around the edges thereof.

While as above described, all three layers of the crotch section may be heat-scalable (i.e., outside layer 41 may be nylon tricot, intermediate layer 43 may be a heatsealable plastic, and inside layer 45 may be open-mesh nylon), it is not essential that all three layers be heatsealable. Thus, for example, the outside layer may be per se a nonheat-sealable material, such as an acetate fabric or even cotton, and the inside layer may be per se a nonheat-sealable material. Under such circumstances, heat-sealing of the three layers occurs by fusion of the intermediate layer to the inside and outside layers.

In the completed garment, the layer 45 of open-mesh net material is on the inside toward the body, between sheet plastic layer 43 and the body. This layer 45 of open-mesh material eliminates the uncomfortable feeling of sheet plastic material on the body. Being openmesh material, it is completely pervious for facilitating cleansing of the inside face of the sheet plastic layer 43, and, as the garment is worn, it provides some measure of ventilation underneath the sheet plastic layer as is desirable for comfort.

In view of the above, it will be seen that the several objects of the invention are achieved and other advantageous results attained.

As various changes could be made in the above constructions without departing from the scope of the invention, it is intended that all matter contained in the above description or shown in the accompanying drawings shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

I claim:

In a sanitary panty garment having a body portion of thin heat-sealable plastic fabric material consisting of front and back sections joined at stitched side seams and a crotch section, the body portion and crotch sections being shaped to provide leg openings, the crotch section having side margins extending along the leg openings and front and back margins extending from one leg opening of the garment to the other, the front and back margins of the crotch section being seamed by stitching to the body portion throughout their extent, and elastic bands encircling the leg openings stitched to the margins of the body portionat the leg openings and the side margins of the crotch section, said crotch section comprising an outside layer of the same material as the body portion, an intermediate layer of impervious heat-scalable sheet plastic material, and an inside layer of open-mesh heat-sealable plastic net material, the

meshes of said net material being large in relation to the thickness of the yarn *from which said net material is made, said crotch section layers being seat-sealed together at intervals around the edges of the crotch section and being stitched together all around the edges of the crotch section by the stitching which secures the front and back margins of the crotch section to the body portion and the stitching which secures the elastic bands to the side margins of the crotch section.

References Cited in the file or this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,342,187 Gardner Feb. 22, 1944 2,575,164 Donovan Nov. 13, 1951 2,678,648 De Woskin May 18, 1954 

